Combustion 101
by xSn0wangel
Summary: Natsu NEVER should've been allowed inside the chemistry lab. A Gratsu One-shot!


They never should have let him inside the chemistry lab. Natsu had even raised his hand on the first day of class and politely informed the teacher that for the safety of himself and everyone in the building, he should be waived of the lab portion of Fundamentals of Chemistry. However, his professor just laughed alongside all his classmates and told him that he had nothing to worry about. They were simply working with incredibly volatile chemicals and potentially dangerous compounds but if everyone was wary of the hazards and careful of their surroundings, then it would be a fun and exciting semester.

But seriously, someone should have listened to him.

It wasn't that he was intentionally messing up the experimental procedures but Natsu didn't exactly have the patience for lab work.

For example, one of his procedures said he needed to add exactly two and a half milliliters of the acid to three grams of measured solid and that much was easy to understand. However, when he was weighing out the solid he forgot to tare the mass of the weighing cup the first time so he added too little for the reaction to occur. His second attempt, he spilled excess solid all over the counter. Then the bottle of acid spilled everywhere when he was trying to suck it up into a calibrated glass pipet and he misread the amount that he finally added to create the solution. Quite frankly, every step was a painful segway into another incorrectly performed experiment.

Then there was the fire.

One day he was setting up his Bunsen burner, to cook up another mess in the making, and he bumped the gas tube away from the spigot. The open flame instantly caught the free flowing gas aflame and there was a cloud of fire inches away from his face! At least his instincts told him to slam a hand over the gas knob and turn it off before he lost an eyebrow. His classmates refused to work beside him anymore after that.

But his teacher still encouraged him to continue on.

Another lab period, he was working with concentrated sulfuric acid in one of the fume hoods, which was the fancy name for the little highly ventilated boxes that all the strong smelling chemicals had to be used inside, so he was sure to wear rubber gloves.

Natsu Dragneel wasn't about to get burned that easily.

However, despite his safety precaution for himself, when he shut the glass door to the fume hood he didn't realize there was acid on the fingertips of his gloves. The next person to open the door was the victim that day.

Nearing the end of the semester, he was really starting to get worn down. Honestly it didn't matter how hard he tried to do things correctly, he always managed to mess things up somehow. Luckily his grade was based mostly on attendance and concept based calculations so his grade was solid enough that he was hopefully going to pass. If he had to retake the class, he intended to burn the whole science hall to the ground.

Then came the day he knew was going to happen ever since he enrolled in the course.

The experimental setup wasn't horribly complicated, but he was required to prepare a large amount of a basic solution. Their teacher had urged them to measure the liquids elsewhere and then combine them all at their own lab benches so that no one would be forced to carry a heavy vat of dangerous chemicals across the room. Of course, Natsu had forgotten the warning while he'd been collecting the necessary materials. His logic was that if he measured things out and then immediately threw them in the container, then there was no way he'd forget to add anything!

But, two liters of liquid is kind of heavy when filled to the brim and he was so focused on not spilling it that he tripped over someone's backpack. Saturating his clothes, splattering against his goggles, and running down his arms, the solution went absolutely everywhere. It burned horribly as the chemicals reacted painfully with his skin.

Before he could even think, he was being pulled out the door and into the adjacent classroom.

"Gray! Get him in the safety shower!"

A dark haired guy appeared out of nowhere and ushered him over to the wall. Throwing off his white lab coat like he was the one about to take a shower, Gray pulled down on a lever and water rained down onto Natsu from above. He made sure to rinse his arms off first since they were stinging the worst.

"You need to strip," said Gray urgently, "It's the only way to make sure the chemicals are rinsed completely from your skin."

He wasn't happy about it, but Natsu was hurting badly enough that he obeyed. First he pulled his shoes and socks off then his shirt over his goggles and jeans. He tried to leave his boxers on but Gray's stern look warned him that they needed to go as well. How humiliating could this possibly be?

"Was it an acid or base burn?" Gray asked casually enough that Natsu briefly wondered how many people he'd had to help with this before.

"Base I think," Natsu muttered as he rubbed his aching arms. They were splotchy and oddly it felt like his skin was slick but not from the water. However familiar with chemical burns now, he knew that what felt slippery, was actually his skin dissolving.

"You think?" Gray looked at him like he was an idiot. Not knowing what you were working with was one of the worst lab practices in his book. But he grabbed the specialized soap for basic burns anyways and held it out for Natsu to use.

He knew they were both guys and all but being naked in front of some random stranger was seriously uncomfortable, even more so when he was wet and being asked to wash himself. Taking the soap from Gray, he stepped out from under the water long enough to lather up his arms and torso. He didn't feel the tingle of the chemicals anywhere except for his arms so he assumed he was fortunate enough to have gotten in the shower before anything had seeped through his clothes. However, he figured he'd rather be safe than sorry.

After he rinsed off, he turned back around to see that Gray was literally right behind him. Blushing, he cowered back against the wall but the other guy shut off the water and followed him.

Trapping Natsu between his arms, Gray leaned in close. Although it was for safety reasons, he'd thoroughly enjoyed overseeing such an attractive guy strip down in front of him. He'd looked thin, but Pinky had surprisingly pretty nice abs hidden underneath that t-shirt which Gray had fully appreciated. Of course he didn't look below Natsu's waist….well…he had to check out that butt.

Tucking his fingers beneath the elastic band of the pink haired man's goggles, Gray slid them up and over his hair. Getting his first good look of the idiot's face, he smirked.

"You're actually pretty cute."

Natsu's eyes widened as his mind tried to process what the hell was happening. Also, again, why was this guy shirtless?

"Are your arms okay? They're the only place you were burned, right?" Natsu looked down at his arms and noted that they were now only slightly red where the solution had gotten on him.

"Uh, yeah, the soap really helped. Thanks."

"No problem," said Gray as he finally backed out of Natsu's personal space and walked over to a storage cabinet. He returned with a towel which Natsu gratefully accepted. Drying himself off quickly because he really didn't want to be naked anymore, he wrapped the towel around his waist and stared down at his wet clothes with newfound realization.

"Yeah, I'm not sure what to do about your clothes," Gray added as if reading his mind, "Well, if you don't mind waiting here a moment, I could grab some of mine from my dorm."

"What if someone comes in here?"

"I guess you could wear my lab coat," Gray laughed as he tossed it around Natsu's shoulders. "I can't just leave a cute freshman like you alone like that."

"I'm not a freshman!" huffed Natsu as he shrugged his arms into the long sleeves and pulled the material around him.

"Sophomore then?" Olive green eyes glared at him.

"No! I'm a senior!"

"A shrimp like you?"

"We're like the same size!"

"…yeahhh."

"Just go get me some clothes, please!"

Gray hurried out and it wasn't long before he was back. Natsu dressed much faster than he'd striped.

"So I was thinking, you probably need a tutor right?"

"Actually no! I don't need one!"

Gray gave him a serious look as put his coat back on. He'd gotten some odd looks walking across campus without a shirt on but it wasn't the first time he'd done it and it wouldn't be the last.

"Are you even qualified to be a tutor?"

"I'm a biochem major and a senior too. You're actually interrupting my research right now." Looking around at the lab equipment, he realized that Gray wasn't bluffing. There was a full-blown set-up for something that he didn't even want to try to understand.

"Oh, um, my bad."

"It's cool. But seriously, I'm damn good at chemistry." He sent Natsu a sultry gaze that he wasn't sure how to interpret.

"Okay…fine. I guess I could use the help because if I have to retake this class, I don't think I'll survive."

"This," Gray said as he gestured to the safety shower, "was a pretty good indication of that." He took a seat beside Natsu on top of one of the empty lab benches.

"So, are you ready for your first lesson?"

Wondering if he'd made a mistake by agreeing to be taught by this stranger, Natsu crossed his arms over his stomach.

"Can't we start another day? I think I've had more than enough chemistry for today."

"C'mon, I'll make it something really easy okay?" Gray did his best puppy-dog look.

"Ah, fine."

Gray scooted closer to Natsu.

"Have you guys learned about combustion reactions yet?"

"Eh?"

"It's simple, you want to combust something so you want to completely burn it up."

Natsu shivered as remembered his dream of burning the science building to the ground.

"Say you've got a hydrocarbon like methane which is just one carbon atom covalently bonded to four hydrogen atoms."

Slate blue eyes focused on Natsu's face as Gray ran his thumb along the other guy's lower lip.

"All you need to combust methane is oxygen and…" Gray leaned in and whispered, "Heat."

He captured Natsu's warm mouth in a savage kiss. In his defense, the guy had practically showered in front of him. Surprisingly Natsu was immediately reactive but even more so when Gray's tongue slipped past his lips. He pulled away when he felt Natsu's fingers claw down his back, this man was like a little catalyst!

"So what do you think the products of the reaction are?"

Breathless from Gray's kisses, Natsu panted slightly through parted swollen lips.

"That's right, carbon dioxide." Gray smirked as he toyed with a piece of damp pink hair. "And water."

Natsu couldn't fight back a smile.

"Maybe you could teach me something after all."

"Ha, we're just getting started!"

L7L7L7L7


End file.
